Ipswich Town FPL: Who To Own, Captain And Avoid

Here's the cold water first, though: this is not a defence you build around. Our numbers have Ipswich down among the league's leakier back lines — bottom third, comfortably — and the opening fixtures are actively hostile to clean sheets. Sunderland at home is fine. Then it's Man United away, Liverpool at home, and trips to Palace and Everton before Fulham visit Portman Road. That's a run where you're hoping for one shutout, maybe two if things break kindly.

So what are these players for? Bench fodder — good, honest, plays-every-week bench fodder. Davis projects around 10-11 points across the six, which is under two a week. Nobody's captaining that. But at £4.0 it's a body that starts football matches, and the fifth defender slot doesn't need more. Diop, O'Shea and Greaves all sit a shade behind on the same money — Davis is the one our model keeps putting top of the pile, and when it ranks team-mates like that, believe it.

The genuinely interesting name is Scherpen. A £4.5 keeper, owned by almost nobody — fewer than 1 in 100 squads — and projecting nearly 14 points over the six. A keeper behind a busy defence picks up saves whether or not the clean sheets land, and against Liverpool and United he'll be busy. As a second keeper or a rotating cheapie, that's proper value hiding in plain sight.

One caveat worth naming: the attacking end of this Ipswich side actually has a kind run — mid-table attack, friendly fixtures — but there's no attacker in our shortlist worth the slot, so don't go hunting.

The call: if you need an Ipswich £4.0, buy Davis, not Diop — same price, better pick, and you're not following the crowd into the worse option. Scherpen is the sharpest budget keeper punt on the market. Everything else here stays on the shelf.